


Trying Not to Drown

by vanillascribble



Category: GOT7
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 14:25:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10492821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillascribble/pseuds/vanillascribble
Summary: Jinyoung is shy and reserved where Jackson is rambunctious and loud. Jinyoung hides his laughter behind a polite palm, while Jackson throws his head back and laughs like a crazy hyena.





	

Trying Not to Drown / GOT7 Fanfic / Vignette-ish / Angst / Wang Jackson x Park Jinyoung / 749 words

 

Jackson has known loneliness—he understands it like a first language. Being an only child, he would conjure invisible friends to play with when his parents leave for training sessions or to compete in sporting events overseas. Perhaps that is why he speaks too loud, jokes too much, sometimes making a fool of himself, just to make others laugh. He believes that if people find him amusing enough, perhaps then they wouldn’t leave him.

 

Determined to perform on the stage to a sell-out concert hall one day in the future, Wang Jackson finds himself alone in an unfamiliar land in his teens. He knows he would have to work double, if not triple hard compared to the other trainees, but he wasn’t prepared for exactly how hard it would be; the endless dance trainings in dimly lit basements, the martial arts sessions where he practises flipping on trampolines, flinging his tired body into the air multiple times and risking having his neck or spine broken in the process, the vocal lessons that he would have to attend even when his throat was screaming in pain against the abuse, and the Hangul class where he struggles to adapt to the nuances and sensitivities of a foreign language more complex than additional mathematics. And above it all, there is always the uncertainty of whether he would be picked to debut, amidst the other trainees chasing after similar dreams. It lingers in the background like thin smoke; barely visible to the naked eye, but it chokes him up every time he thinks of it.

Various times, he contemplates on his life-altering decision of hanging his sabre and fencing outfit. Training for the Olympics seems like a piece of cake compared to trying to make it as a foreign K-Pop artist in an over-saturated market of mass-produced K-Pop groups. But Wang Jackson perseveres—he has no idea when or what and where, but he will stand on that stage, the crowd screaming his name.

One day, a boy with dark hair and light skin offers him a drink, as he lies on the dance floor, panting after learning a particularly difficult dance routine. Jackson takes the bottle of water, gulps down the liquid as if he hasn’t had a drink for days. The boy studies him; his dark eyes penetrating behind the happy-go-lucky façade that Jackson often hides behind.

“Thanks—??”

“Jinyoung. Just call me Jinyoung,”

“Jinyoung…”

“Yup, Jinyoung. Well, finish your drink, Wang Jackson,”

And he left. Jackson empties the bottle until its very last drop, asking himself whether it is possible to drown in someone’s eyes like he just did.

 

He rarely sees Jinyoung at the agency after that. One day he sits on the stairs, munching on a kimbap bought from the snack cart at a minimum price, and overhears the other trainees talking about Jinyoung debuting as JJ Project with the B-boy king, Jaebum. Jackson bites into the rice, and a piece of the seaweed got stuck between his teeth. Jaebum is legendary, even among the trainees; Wang Jackson is just another face amongst the hungry crowd, easily forgettable by the likes of Jinyoung.

 

 

They would meet in the hallway sometimes when Jinyoung attends vocal practice with Jaebum late into the night. Jackson stays back just to catch a glimpse of the other boy, just to pass him, just to say hi. Jinyoung is shy and reserved where Jackson is rambunctious and loud. Jinyoung hides his laughter behind a polite palm, while Jackson throws his head back and laughs like a crazy hyena. But Jackson notices Jinyoung’s absence, anxiously checking Jinyoung’s schedule—searching for a time when Jinyoung would be at the agency, just so he could run into the other boy. He wishes Jinyoung would say more than a few words each time they bump into each other, or look at him longer, rather than shifting his eyes every time Jackson asks him a question, his eyes never leaving Jinyoung’s face. But Jinyoung hesitates; he stares at his own shoes, at the invisible fly on the wall, at the clouds floating against the summer sky through the glass window. He answers each of Jackson’s queries with practised patience, evading Jackson’s burning stares, his cheeks turning a shade darker with every additional question posed by the foreign trainee.

 

Jackson is nineteen and drowning in the depth of Jinyoung’s dark eyes. Jinyoung is the same age, trying very hard not to get lost in the maze of Jackson’s lonely eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Jackson has known loneliness’—that line got stuck in my head for the past two days, and I just have to write this out to find out the next sentence.


End file.
